Good Friday?

It is always good to commemorate the Birth, Life, Death & Resurrection of Jesus Christ on any occasion.  How do we resolve the issue of Jesus dying on a Friday, being raised early Sunday Morning when the scriptures clearly teach He was in the grave or heart of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights?

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:40”

Matthew 28 teaches it was the first day of the week (Sunday) that Jesus rose from the dead, so when we reconcile Matthew 12:40 with that,  Jesus must have died on a Wednesday and not on a Friday.

How then can Wednesday be the day before the Sabbath? It all depends on what ‘sabbath’ you’re talking about.  There is the 7th day sabbath on Saturday, but there is another sabbath many non-Jewish people don’t know about. Jesus was crucified on the day before what the Jews call “High Sabbath” – which was on a Thursday.

It just goes to show how the traditions of Man don’t always line up with the Bible, and how easy it is even for BELIEVERS to get caught up in error out of ignorance: innocent ignorance OR intentional ignorance.

Innocent ignorance is when you’ve only been taught one thing, and because that’s all you’ve ever known you lived your life based on that one thing not knowing any better.  Intentional ignorance is when you have the opportunity to dig deeper and know better and you choose not to obtain information that is widely available.

Intentional ignorance also occurs when somebody comes along to enlighten you but you reject the new information without checking it’s veracity; is what I just heard God’s truth or not?  God will surely tell you if you TRUST Him…

Those of us in the Western part of the world and many others typically celebrate His death on a ‘Good Friday’ but Jesus died on a Wednesday and thanks be to God ROSE AGAIN early Sunday Morning!

But WAIT A MINUTE!  According to the scripture He was in the grave/heart of the earth for 3 days & 3 nights = 72 hours, right?   We say He got up early Sunday Morning because of our day system.

But the Jewish day system begins 6pm or sundown, Jesus died at 3pm (ninth hour) and this is why they were trying to get Jesus off the cross before nightfall on Wednesday – the High Sabbath was about to begin at 6pm.

Jesus was placed in the grave between 3-6pm Wednesday – 72 hours from that point would have made Jesus’ resurrection on Saturday during that same time frame, not Sunday.   It was that next Sunday morning when the ladies DISCOVERED that He had risen from the dead.

After 25 years of preaching and saying He got up early Sunday morning – I have to make an important correction that some preachers might not be willing to make. Talk about going against the grain!

I’m looking forward to the day when we all make it to heaven and God rewinds the video tape on this and a whole lot more!

Abundant Blessings Await The Faithful!

Blessings!

–The Fount

Copyright 2010

Be Healed Already!

Many people suffer from chronic illnesses that are said to be incurable, but Jesus healed every single person who ever asked Him to.  So then, why are Believers sicker than ever and dying at such early ages?  Did you know that God said in Genesis 6:3 that we should be living at least 120 years? And yet hardly anybody lives to be that age.  WHY?

Some people in their hearts really don’t believe God wants them to be healed and live that long, and they believe in their hearts that their ailments are incurable.  And based on their belief in what Man says average life expectancy should be (70-80 years) people succumb to those very notions which are contrary to God’s Word and His will for our lives.

Yes, you can be healed already – God wants you to be healed and made whole to live an abundant, prosperous, vibrant and productive life for His glory!

From heaven itself, God placed plants, vegetables and herbs in the earth as sources of life for the human frame BEFORE He placed mankind in the earth, and He programmed our genetic code to respond to these vital nutrients that grow out of the earth.  But mankind has outsmarted himself trying to re-create the healing power of God by concocting sterile synthetic substances that only treat symptoms and cause more side effects.

As a health evangelist, it is my duty to expose the truth and encourage Believers to go BACK to God’s way to gain, regain and sustain health in these physical bodies.  According to God’s Word, by the stripes of Jesus we have been healed already:
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. I Peter 2:24”

If you believe what God has to say about your healing, and follow through with specific instructions He lays down for you, because of the fact that He is faithful and unable to lie, YOU must be healed!

To examine this issue further, please refer to our Health & Nutrition page entitled: “Healed Already”

Be Immensely Blessed  —The Fount

Copyright 2010 All rights reserved.

Disclaimer Statement: The Fount’s author, Rev. David J. Dill is a health evangelist, researcher of clinical nutrition and not a medical practitioner.  These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.  The information contained herein is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

O Christmas Tree, NO Christmas Tree?

EDITORIAL:

Christmas Without The Tree?

When I learned that the Bible refers to the decorating of chopped down trees as a heathen practice and that God forbids it, this was one of the great shocks of my life, and yet I was strangely relieved at the same time.

I can hear somebody already – “What in the world are you talking about?! We’ve always had a tree in our house at Christmas time, and we ain’t gonna stop now no matter what you say! Who are YOU anyway?”

Oh, how endeared all of us have become to the Christmas tree!

This is not a matter of controversy or popularity, but simple trust and obedience; Is the tradition I’ve always known and love right, or is God’s Word right?

Can Christmas still be Christmas without the tree?

While very few preachers who actually teach this or dare to speak on the subject, the argument is not with me but with God Himself:

“Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven: for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the wormkman, with the ax. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.  Jeremiah 10:2-4”

Even though this scripture doesn’t use the literal words ‘Christmas tree’ the practice of chopping down trees, fastening them to stand upright and decorating them with silver and gold is exactly what we do at Christmas time.

Why would God forbid such a seemingly ‘harmless’ act?  Aren’t we honoring God and the birth of Jesus with the Christmas tree?

The context of Jeremiah 10 can be found by reading the verses before and after this passage. It’s dealing with the heathen practice of worshiping created things rather than or in addition to the Creator Himself, which is idolatry.

Evidently, there is an acceptable and unacceptable way to honor Him, and tree worship displeases the Master.

It’s been over 15 years now since I stopped assembling Christmas trees in my home, and I’ve come to find that while many (including loved ones) think I’m a crazy oddball from a cultish religion, celebrating the birth of Jesus is not about what we do or don’t do because it’s all about Him and the things that He says are important to HIM.

There are many ways for families & friends to come together, and for children to have a great time celebrating the birth of God’s Son without disobeying God’s Word. People need to find their own way of doing this by way of their personal and loving relationship with Him.

One thing I do know for sure; it makes no sense to ‘honor’ God by doing something that He says is offensive to Him.  Not knowing any better is one thing, but to know better and STILL disobey? That’s just like going to the King of Kings’ birthday party and flipping Him off to His face.  Where is the honor in that?  He’s been too good for me to treat Him that way!

If you google ‘tree worship’ you’ll find it’s a huge pagan practice even today. In Jeremiah 10 God forbids His people from doing the things tree worshippers do by saying “learn not the way of the heathen.”

I don’t expect people who don’t read or believe their Bibles to see this, but if tree worship matters to God enough for Him to warn His people against it, should it not matter to His people?

This is a matter of an individual’s personal conviction after having read the scripture, meditated on it, prayed, asked God, and heard back from God about it….

I can tell you right now, God is not like us: He is not going to contradict Himself by saying it was wrong then, but it’s not wrong now. God’s Word changes not.

Whether we acknowledge it, recognize it or not, bowing and kneeling before the tree (i.e. to receive gifts that tree did not provide) is indeed symbolic of false worship.

It’s good to know why we do a thing…..   I agree, on the surface decorating trees seems harmless.   Let’s consider a few more things:

In view of this tradition, did God tell us to commemorate the birth of His Son this way, and if He did not – why do we do it? By the way we adamantly adhere to this tradition, you’d think God commanded us to do these things, and we would suffer great judgment if we don’t do these things. 😀

So far in scripture I have not found where God tells us to commemorate the birth of His Son with trees the way we do, but I have found where He says NOT to set up and decorate trees the way unbelievers do….

And in that same passage of scripture He explained the origins of this widely accepted tradition as being a pagan practice of idolatry. The Bible says we are in the world but not of the world; we don’t do the same things unbelievers do. For some people that’s good enough.

But if not, even if we have ‘good intentions’ by setting up decorated trees in our homes, God told us in Romans 14:13-16 not to put a stumbling block in our brother’s way, and not to let our good be evil spoken of.

The ones who don’t know any better will get the wrong impression and when we as Believing Christians do things that violate scripture knowingly, it becomes ‘double-wrong’ because now we are setting others up for a fall. This is why I taught my children what the Bible says, and stopped setting up trees in my home.

If we do the same things the heathen do, where is our witness, and how are we distinguished from them?  We can’t take something that God says is sin and re-define it into something good.

What better way for the devil to have Christians advocate disobedience to God?

Be Blessed!